I've had this system, or at least this case for about a year and a half, and I've constantly been swapping fans and other parts for "silent" variants. I've been using spcr as a knowledge base for the last 2 years, and I think I'm at a point where I'm finally comfortable with my system.

and there's an NEC dvd-rw drive, and a generic dvd-rom that's about to die.

I wanted a system I could overclock but not double as a space heater. The 170 has a TDP of 85W read by Tcasemax. Currently I run an overclock of 2.8ghz @1.4v(although cpu-z/crystal cpuid/core temp all say it's 1.35v) for encoding and games. I underclock the cpu to 1.25ghz @1.025v when I'm just browsing or doing menial tasks. Load and idle temperatures are 50 and 33C, respectively at 2.8ghz. At 1.25ghz load and idle temps are 34 and 26C, respectively. Cooling the cpu is a zalman 9500 modded with a NMB-MAT fan, the model is one that Scythe has recently started to carry. At 8v it spins at 950rpm.

As far as system fans and cooling solutions, there are a total of 6 fans, including the two in the psu. Both PSU fans are the same NMB-MAT line from Scythe. The exhaust fan is an big bad 120mm Panaflo. The Panaflo is slowed by the resistor that comes with Acoustifans. The bios lets me control the DC voltage given to each of the 6 fan headers on the motherboard, but only goes as low as 8v. The Panaflo spins 650-700rpm at 8v, and ramps up to 1000rpm with CPU temp.

The intake fan, an Acoustifan, gives a little fresh air to the Scythe Quiet Drive enclosed hard drives. I put a resistor of the same value as the original it came with in series with the fan, and it's kept at a constant 650rpm.

Ok, now, on to the pictures! all shots taken with the pc runnin'
(I resized them down to 1024x768)

The Case. I unplugged the super bright power indicator LED..could have used a resistor, but no time! mario trash bin.

Majority of the motherboard

Another board angle...ignore the ide cable, I'm sharing someone's old hard drive on our network at the moment.

Shot of the Video card. The x1950 pro is a pretty good folder, and runs cool. I've got the Vf900 plugged into two fanmates. When both set to low it spins at 1000rpm, when i set one to high it ramps to 1380rpm. At the lowest setting it reaches load temps of 50C in a 25C room. Also notice the south bridge cooler on the TV tuner.

The fanmates. Once upon a time I had to use all three. With the resistors and the NMB-MAT, and my AT8 of course, I only need to use them for the video card. Only one of them is plugged in, and the second fanmate to the video card is wired outside of the case. Soon I wont need any at all once I complete a fan swap on the vf900.

Sort of a Northbridge shot. The AT8 apparently ships with a non-wicked heat pipe, meaning it's orientation dependent. Well, the inverted Lian Li caused my NB temps to idle around 45 and get close to 60C under Prime testing. I ripped out the heat pipe from the PWM heat sink so I would still have something to help them stay cool.

backside view of some sloppy cable management.

Another view from the backside, this one of the Quiet drives. I've got them sitting on two layers of small foam pieces, stuck to the lower drive with double sided take. Since the pata drive is in my system right now, the shot looks too ugly from the front. I haven't monitored their temps as much as I should, mostly because speedfan hates this motherboard, but when I did, they idled(150 on top, 320 below) around 33-35C, and the raptor would get around 40-41C while encoding, which are the exact same temps I saw before I used the enclosure.

Manditory to post a shot of the psu?

Picture of the upper rear, notice the fan mate creeping out from the pci bays.

Shot of the NMB-MAT psu fan, 80mm version of the one on the 9500.

Beauty shot of the Panaflo

And my messy messy desk. Using my IBM speakers now, because I'm too cheap to send the Onkyo HT to get it repaired. Sure, the labor is free under waranty, but they still expect me to pay shipping!
as far as components you see,
desk lamp, dinovo (non-bluetooth) keyboard/mouse, Logitech G7, Razer Exact Mat pad, Acer 2032WA 20'', and my Heat transfer book. Oh, and my old HP PSC to the right.

I'm happy with the system. Now that I've disabled the power on light I can't tell if it's actually on or not when I get home unless I lean close to it and hear the quiet woosh of the optical drives and fans. So, if you made it this far, thanks for reading and looking, I don't have any pets to spice the pics up like other users, but I do have a new digital camera, and I had an excuse to use it.

edit: i apologize for the dust, i haven't gotten around to cleaning it since this past June.[/b]

At full speed, you can hear some bearing noise, but it's not rough, more of a low pulsing noise. The noisetaker undervolts the fans by a fair amount, making them inaudible. I can only hear the fan on the zalman if I get within 6in. Overall, I'm satisfied, though I'm considering replacing my aging panaflo and acoustifan with some s-flex's, or maybe those new noctua fans if they ever become available.

now that I think about it, can anyone make any suggestions on how I could mount those Quiet drives in a better configuration? I'm thinking, move the 320gb drive to the 5'' bays, and suspend it vertically with respect to width, cause there's definitely not enough room to hang it length-wise. Then raise the Raptor a little with the foam feet and give it a little bit of active cooling. The 320 as is isn't getting much, if any air flow. I'll give it a whirl if I ever have any time, and, if anyone can suggest another alternative, I'd be glad to hear it.

the zalman isn't fanless, I probably could duct it, but I'm lazy. I almost would have gone with thermalright for the cpu cooler, but I bought the 9500 back when it first came out, the xp-120 was the only thermalright I would have considered back then, I could have chosen the ninja, but the 9500 blows a little on the northbridge. The only reason I have an enermax psu is because I keep getting waranty replacements, I haven't actually spent money on enermax since 2001 when I first bought a whisper series psu. As far as lian li, call it gay, i think they're more visually appealing than others, and this a05 is pretty quiet.

It's fine for most people, but not good enough if you want a really quiet computer.

Well, I can barely hear the thing over ambient noise, and it's only because the panaflo I put on my vf900 is louder than expected at 10v, I'll have to lock it at 8v in the bios. The only other issue I have is the fact that I can't enable AAM on my 3200ks with this motherboard. I've tried like 5 different programs, and none of them can communicate with the drive.

I've tried the feature tool, a notebook control center, among others. I think it's my motherboard. The feature tool just locks up when it says "starting pc dos", the notebook program I have lets me see that I can enable AAM, but when I attempt to, I get an error from the program.

Nice job with the case!
I just ordered it myself and I have a few questions in anticipation of it's arrival.

First off I noticed that you changed the stock fans, I was thinking of buying some yate loons to replace them but wonder how quiet the stock ones are in the first place? I built a comp for a friend using the Lian Li pc-7b and the stock fans were pretty quiet.

Also I see you drilled a set of holes on the bottom of the case for more ventilation, how were the temps before you did the drilling? Did the PSU get hot to the touch?

Lastly, how is the case with regards to dampening or transmitting sound? Any panels resonating? When the DVD drive in the Lian Li pc-7b spun up, it shook the whole damn case and ended up being the loudest component. Is it the same with this case? Does the case come with soft or hard rubber feet? Thanks for any info.

Nice job with the case!I just ordered it myself and I have a few questions in anticipation of it's arrival.

Thanks! Can do.

claude05 wrote:

First off I noticed that you changed the stock fans, I was thinking of buying some yate loons to replace them but wonder how quiet the stock ones are in the first place? I built a comp for a friend using the Lian Li pc-7b and the stock fans were pretty quiet.

They may be quiet to you, but silence and quietness is relative. Here where I live the ambient noise level is low. The 3 S-Flex's I have spin at ~780rpm, and I can still hear them. So, to me, i don't think the stock fans are quiet. But if you undervolt, any fan could be "quiet"...that's my take. I never used them because of the way Abit boards control the fans. They can supply a DC voltage based on component temperatures. But the lowest setting is 8v, so I needed fans that were nearly silent at 8v, and tolerable at 12v, which the stock fans are not.

claude05 wrote:

Also I see you drilled a set of holes on the bottom of the case for more ventilation, how were the temps before you did the drilling? Did the PSU get hot to the touch?

The holes didn't do all that much, the air from the psu seems to be slightly cooler. As far as temps go, they haven't changed. The back-to-front airflow keeps the heat of the psu to itself, but the issue is that the psu can pick up heat, like in a standard tower design. So, i made the holes, and the psu exhaust feels less like it's hot, and more like it's slightly warm.

claude05 wrote:

Lastly, how is the case with regards to dampening or transmitting sound? Any panels resonating? When the DVD drive in the Lian Li pc-7b spun up, it shook the whole damn case and ended up being the loudest component. Is it the same with this case? Does the case come with soft or hard rubber feet? Thanks for any info.

Lots of questions! As far as dampening, I was actually surprised at how the side panels seem dense. They're incredibly light, but tapping them doesn't yield the same chattery noise that I hear when I do the same to the panels on my V1000. Also unlike the V1000, the panels are held securely in place by a few pieces of metal that act as a cushion to the panel. The effect is a snug fit, and panels that don't resonate or vibrate.

My DVD drive is loud, but it doesn't cause the case to vibrate. Even the drive bezel seems more secure with this case. In my V1000, the bezel cover would vibrate when dvd's were playing or burning to disc, but I haven't heard a peep out of it yet. My DVD drive is still loud at full speed, but when it spins up, it's just a loud wooshing.

Unfortunately the feet are hard plastic, maybe hard rubber, but still, doesn't do much for dampening. I was thinking of replacing them, but the case doesn't seem to need it.

Nice job with the case!I just ordered it myself and I have a few questions in anticipation of it's arrival.

Thanks! Can do.

claude05 wrote:

First off I noticed that you changed the stock fans, I was thinking of buying some yate loons to replace them but wonder how quiet the stock ones are in the first place? I built a comp for a friend using the Lian Li pc-7b and the stock fans were pretty quiet.

They may be quiet to you, but silence and quietness is relative. Here where I live the ambient noise level is low. The 3 S-Flex's I have spin at ~780rpm, and I can still hear them. So, to me, i don't think the stock fans are quiet. But if you undervolt, any fan could be "quiet"...that's my take. I never used them because of the way Abit boards control the fans. They can supply a DC voltage based on component temperatures. But the lowest setting is 8v, so I needed fans that were nearly silent at 8v, and tolerable at 12v, which the stock fans are not.

claude05 wrote:

Also I see you drilled a set of holes on the bottom of the case for more ventilation, how were the temps before you did the drilling? Did the PSU get hot to the touch?

The holes didn't do all that much, the air from the psu seems to be slightly cooler. As far as temps go, they haven't changed. The back-to-front airflow keeps the heat of the psu to itself, but the issue is that the psu can pick up heat, like in a standard tower design. So, i made the holes, and the psu exhaust feels less like it's hot, and more like it's slightly warm.

claude05 wrote:

Lastly, how is the case with regards to dampening or transmitting sound? Any panels resonating? When the DVD drive in the Lian Li pc-7b spun up, it shook the whole damn case and ended up being the loudest component. Is it the same with this case? Does the case come with soft or hard rubber feet? Thanks for any info.

Lots of questions! As far as dampening, I was actually surprised at how the side panels seem dense. They're incredibly light, but tapping them doesn't yield the same chattery noise that I hear when I do the same to the panels on my V1000. Also unlike the V1000, the panels are held securely in place by a few pieces of metal that act as a cushion to the panel. The effect is a snug fit, and panels that don't resonate or vibrate.

My DVD drive is loud, but it doesn't cause the case to vibrate. Even the drive bezel seems more secure with this case. In my V1000, the bezel cover would vibrate when dvd's were playing or burning to disc, but I haven't heard a peep out of it yet. My DVD drive is still loud at full speed, but when it spins up, it's just a loud wooshing.

Unfortunately the feet are hard plastic, maybe hard rubber, but still, doesn't do much for dampening. I was thinking of replacing them, but the case doesn't seem to need it.

Thanks for all the answers! I live on a second floor with five windows facing a busy street interseection here in Brooklyn NY, so my ambient sound is not low at all, perhaps the stock fans will be enough.
I'm Glad to hear about the build quality of the case. My current case is a steel full desktop so vibration isn't a big problem. I was worried that in switching to Aluminum I'd have to tweak it some to keep it as quiet.
Too bad about the hard rubber feet, but the case will be used in my living room which has carpeting so hopefully that will help dampen it some. Thanks again for the prompt and informative response!

x1950pro idle/load temps: 42-44/60-64C
The temps are ~2-4C higher than they were with the Vf900 and a panaflo @ 900rpm. The load temps are very reasonable, I know the card can take it, since my cousin's x1950pro with an x2 used to idle at 75C, perfectly stable. The X2 was seated incorrectly by powercolor, but the fact that it can handle temps that high lets me know my system is well under the red-line.

Northbridge and PWM temps have increased 3C at idle, and about the same at load. Only noise now is the slight woosh of the S-flex's. I can definitely live with that. Only thing to change now is the power supply, not for noise mind you, more for cable management. The only option I'd consider is the Corsair 520HX because i can find it cheap, and it doesn't have the tiny blower of the M12's. Still, that wont happen for a long time.

edit: Video card load temps are highly dependent on ambient temp it seems. The previously quoted temps were with an ambient Temp of 60F, at 70F, the card gets up to 70C while folding.

nice build I'm curious if you have the bottom-most silent drive on some foam? I have a silentdrive with acoustifeet, would it fit on the bottom with a ninja above it? [that's what I'm wondering]

yes, it's on foam, so I imagine acoustifeet wouldn't cause an issue, but it all depends on the dimensions of the cpu cooler. I can take a closer picture tomorrow when I update this thread. I've purchased and installed a Forton Zen 400W passive PSU, and I've gone to passive cooling with the Ultra 120. I'll have the visuals at some point tomorrow.

What temps do you get from the bottom HDD and the one on the PSU (I suspect the one on the PSU is TOASTY, all the heat passes by it).

I reversed the airflow in the case, now the intake is in the front and the exhaust is in the back ... until I get a silent drive to put on the bottom ... I only run 600rpm Noctuas, and the HDD was getting 55*C ... not acceptable. I am now getting max 45*C.

I also got a Lian-Li side fan for the GPU area ... to ehaust the heat that builds up top ...

you say that you have zero rattling when you're running your DVD drive? which drive do you have? I read another review of this case that said it did cause the case to rattle quite heavily [seems to be the rule with aluminum]

eugenius: I haven't had a hard drive resting on the psu for some time now. I just use the spare optical drive bay. Everest will only monitor the temperature of one of the drives, the 5000AAKS, the maximum temp I've seen is 44C.

jaldridge6:I can verify that the case doesn't rattle at all. I've got an NEC dvd write, can't recall the model number, maybe 3520, or something like that. The side panels are held in place firmly by small flexible pieces of metal that keep the panel from moving:

oh, and here's a picture of the foam feet under my drive, held on my double sided tape. Sorry for the bad angle, unless I remove the power supply this is all I can do.

I've made some major changes to the inside of the case. First and foremost, I changed the air flow pattern from a back-to-front, to a dual intake positive pressure scheme. Here's a picture of what's going on.

Another major change is the switch to passive cpu cooling, I'll discuss it more below. Air enters from both the front and the rear of the case. It passes all of the warm components, and then is forced out either through the psu, the upper vents in the rear of the case, or the lower vents. Additionally, there's a small vent on my I/O backpanel for PWM cooling. With positive pressure, air is forced over the PWM heatsink, and out the back. I finally have decent PWM temps! I can verify that the airflow is getting to every vent. There's a noticeable amount of air leaving the case through all major vents, including the power supply.

In the picture you'll notice the Fortron Zen 400W passive power supply.

The power supply works perfectly.(although it exhibits a very low volume buzz, I've got a replacement on the way but technically it's so low volume I can only hear it from about 5 inches way.) The only issue with integrating it into the system is the airflow pattern. Air will be forced through the power supply and into the face plate of the case. This is also the area that the front intake fan draws air from. Having hot air leave the power supply only to enter the front intake is rather pointless. So, I made a small duct.

The duct makes sure the psu exhaust is vented to the surroundings, and not directly to the intake.

Here's a shot of the whole system:

Now I can discuss the passive cooling of the CPU. Initially I had been running the Opteron 170 at 2.8ghz with 1.4v. This wouldn't be easy to cool passively, especially with a Ultra 120. Additionally, it wouldn't bode well for power consumption. I've recently moved, and electricity is no longer included in my rent. For this reason, I've gone the route of undervolting. I've been able to undervolt the chip to 1.1v, the lowest my motherboard will allow. This was accomplished using CrystalCpuid. I've also given the chip a 100mhz overclock. So currently the machine is folding at 2.1ghz with 1.1vcore. Under load, with ~26C ambient temperatures, the max system temps I've seen:
Case temp: 37C
CPU Core 1: 38C
CPU Core 2: 42C
North Bridge: 51C
PWM: 38C
WD5000AAKS: 43C
X9150pro idle/load: 48C/73C

These are with fan speeds of ~1000rpm. When CPU temps drop below 40C, the fans slow to 800 rpm, lower would be nice, but I wanted to use the dynamic features of my board which directly supplies the fans with a voltage between 8V-12V. The northbridge temperature is the only unfortunate drawback to the setup, but the system is 100% stable. I would like to improve the cooling, but the space requirements rule out any other type of cooling. I had tried installing the HR-03 on top of the card, but idle and load temps increased ~7C, and the north bridge only improved by ~2C, so it wasn't something I saw as advantageous overall.

well, i'm stuck between this case or a antec TX640b. I don't like cramped cases so I'll probably get the antec =O . I do like the design ,however. i think i'd probably get better CPU temps in the TX640b but I'm kind of curious what a fanless ninja plus two intakes on opposite ends would result in using this lian-li model. positive pressure definitely makes a logical argument for cooling the entire case versus just a certain area. i'm dead set on not having more than 2 fans plus the psu fan so adding a 3rd fan onto the ninja would be a no-sale point for me. I have a q6600 processor and no undervolting options so that's the main consideration.

Odd bit of news regarding power consumption. Prior to moving to my new place I had tested the full CPU load power draw from the wall with a kill-a-watt. The device measured ~100W. When I moved, I was finally able to uninstall my wireless card. Additionally, I replaced my ati theatre 550 pro for a Hauppage 150. Now, using F@H for full cpu load, the system is drawing 120W, 20W more than before! Could the networking feature of the chipset and the hauppage card really draw that much power combined?

Jaldridge6: I'm not sure of the TDP of the Q6600, but it can't be that much more than an Opteron, can it? Even if I run the Opteron at stock volts, it never goes above 50C, a reasonable max temperature. With a Ninja I bet it would be even better, the tight fin spacing of the Ultra 120 isn't as optimal for such dispersed airflow. The system isn't so cramped, it looks that way now because the Zen is actually 1.5 inches longer than my previous enermax.

IÂ´d like to share my insights since the A05 will probably be my next case.

I would highly recommend adding an exaust fan. The question is how. Eugenius added a Lian Li blower fan. While it is perfectly positioned it doesnÂ´t look very efficient. You could cut an exaust hole directly on the side panel instead. I can imagine cutting such a beautiful case is not an easy decision, but it would improve your the cooling potential. You will probably afford running those 3 fans @600rpm at load which will be definately quiter than 2 @800-1000 rpm.

About the northbridge temps: You could add a small cardboard duct, redirecting some airflow from the rear fan on the existing heatsink. I would expect at least a 5 degree drop by doing it. Your CPU temps leave you enough headroom to do this.

Finally to the PSU: I think most of the heat probably ends inside the case anyway since airflow at the front looks really restricted. I would be a little worried because it is a passive PSU. I know colling it properly in this case is a big challenge and I canÂ´t come up with a proper solution that doesnÂ´t involve lots of cutting or an external unit.

Well, I hope I was helpful. Thanks for sharing your careful work in silencing this little beauty

IÂ´d like to share my insights since the A05 will probably be my next case.

I would highly recommend adding an exaust fan. The question is how. Eugenius added a Lian Li blower fan. While it is perfectly positioned it doesnÂ´t look very efficient. You could cut an exaust hole directly on the side panel instead. I can imagine cutting such a beautiful case is not an easy decision, but it would improve your the cooling potential. You will probably afford running those 3 fans @600rpm at load which will be definately quiter than 2 @800-1000 rpm.

About the northbridge temps: You could add a small cardboard duct, redirecting some airflow from the rear fan on the existing heatsink. I would expect at least a 5 degree drop by doing it. Your CPU temps leave you enough headroom to do this.

Finally to the PSU: I think most of the heat probably ends inside the case anyway since airflow at the front looks really restricted. I would be a little worried because it is a passive PSU. I know colling it properly in this case is a big challenge and I canÂ´t come up with a proper solution that doesnÂ´t involve lots of cutting or an external unit.

Well, I hope I was helpful. Thanks for sharing your careful work in silencing this little beauty

I'm perfectly comfortable with the noise level of two 800rpm fans. The nb/gpu temps are the only two that idle high, but within limits. As for airflow through the passive power supply, there's a lot. I can fell a large amount of air moving out from all of the vents in the upper rear, and through the exhaust of the power supply. So, positive pressure is working for me. My next plan however, is to move to a lower power 45W chip, remove the PSU and swap with a PicoPSU(actually, I already own it). I'm already running the case right now with the power supply sitting atop the case, just for easy removal of the Pico while testing it, and idle temps for the nb and gpu dropped by ~9C. So, the PSU does hadd heat, but it's not so much that it's thermally limiting my system.

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